As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An information handling system may include a storage system or storage network that includes fault tolerant data storage. One example of a fault tolerant data storage system is a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) storage system. RAID storage systems combine multiple disks into an array of disk drives to obtain performance, capacity, and reliability advantages over other storage techniques, including, for example, a single large drive. Although RAID storage systems are designed and sold by several manufacturers, data compatibility between RAID storage systems from different manufacturers is limited, if not completely nonexistent. As a result, if a RAID array is created on a set of disks and a RAID controller from a first manufacturer, it is not possible to move one or more of the disks to a RAID controller from a second manufacturer and access data on the moved disks through the RAID controller of the second manufacturer. The issue of data incompatibility between RAID storage systems of different manufacturers will become more problematic as disk backup systems become more prevalent. Some RAID disk backup systems require that individual disks be swapped into and out of the drive array. If a backup is required, and the controller that wrote the data is not available, the data on the backup disk will likely not be accessible.